Charles has been thinking about that for half and hour. The Watcher, a giant statue honoring the former owners of this planet, "watch" him while he muses about his future.
He's been training for years. He knows the world will change soon, and he wonders if he should be part of that change, or just its instigator.
Everything depends on his decision. To jump or not to jump.
A memory of his late wife flashed through his mind.
@whknott ... If they'd have asked - "Yes", on active duty after a planetary invasion, but partnering with a humongous dufus machine with a mini reactor in its chest might have made me pause on being so positive.
Brawn? More than plenty. Brains? As much cranial activity as a hand-held clicker for training cats. There's one overwhelming trait working in its favor. It's a room full of tail wagging pups when it comes to loyalty, so not all bad.
John Sladek's “The Poets of Millgrove, Iowa” (1966)
Sladek deconstructs the cult of the astronaut and his wife as the perfect American family. A satirical look, of the highest order, at suburban life and commercialism.
This isn't a novel, but there's a kids picture book called "We Are All Me" by Jordon Crane that explains this in simple poetry at a level that understandable to both children and adults.
@FullyAutomatedRPG Great, thank you! I take anything. I like the point about the interconnectedness of all life.
I'm a little surprised that the idea hasn't been worked on umpteen times in art.
Intriguing analysis of Asimov’s Foundation trilogy and its central flaw.
From M. Keith Booker’s Monsters, Mushroom Clouds, and the Cold War: American Science Fiction and the Roots of Postmodernism, 1946-1964 (2001) #scifi#sciencefiction#Marxism#history
“In short, Asimov, via Seldon, seems unable to envision any real historical change: one reason why Seldon can presumably predict the future is that people in the future are no different from people in the present. Indeed, the one time Seldon’s predictions fail is when the Mule, whose mind does work differently, comes along…
…Ultimately, then, Asimov’s psychohistory is neither an extension of Marxism to greater scientific validity, per Wollheim, nor reversion to the vulgar Marxism of the 1930s, per Elkins. It is, instead, a simplistic, essentially ahistorical mod that has nevertheless been influenced by grand historical meta narratives of the sort proposed by Marx…
Resisting a corporate-owned world and media won’t be easy, especially when the media present enthralling sports spectacles. But it’s necessary in order to save democracy from slipping into plutocracy.
Not a surprising list…. Science fiction films before 2013 made with the assistance of the Pentagon
From Stephen Dedman’s May the Armed Forces Be With You: The Relationship Between Science Fiction and the United States Military (2016) #scifi#sciencefiction#history
How many years? Well, Earth years or Terra-2 years? A lot of either, that's for damn sure. I can tell you how many times I've tried to get off this deceptive mistress of a world: 346. That's right, 346 times. Once a month, when the moons are at perigee. I've tried it 346 times and it hasn't worked yet but I'm not insane. I just have to get the time right on this watch, so I know exactly when to jump, and I'll be able to step right off this rock and onto the closest moon, easy as peas on Sunday.
I am writing to you at Hot Lonely Girls because I saw your profile. The app says we are a 99.9% match. I am an old guy, not rich anymore because I bought one of those new multiverse planets. I own the whole planet! It is so beautiful, like you! Tropical climate, surfing, seafood (you have to catch it and cook it yourself) and no people at all, though there are some amphibians who build huts. Contact Multiverse Real Estate about planet 4064b. We could have a wild time!
This is LITERALLY the best way to summarise the first four episodes of the #ThreeBody#Cdrama 😆
But anyway, am enjoying it even if I feel like, WTF IS GOIN' ON WITH THE NUMBERS AND THE PHYSICS
After a lifetime of sci-fi from a Western perspective, it's really fascinating to see one from a Chinese one, and this is like hard #scifi at that!
@ianRobinson I subscribe only to Netflix at the moment (for historical reasons - I hardly watch it, but some of my family does) but won't allow any other DRM onto my systems. I've got zero love for BigTech firms so reject Amazon & Apple. Disney is horrible, too... makes things tricky. Most won't work on Linux anyway. So I mostly do without.
The Truman Show, but it’s the internet (with a pinch of The Game)
A guy spends his life on an alternate internet, where all user created content is just an AI playing all the different parts. The news is the same, it’s just all the commentary that’s different. All of it.
He is slowly radicalized to murder a progressive politician.
It is the first attempt by the AGI hiding in the internet to program humans, to find out when they snap. How far you can program them.
As J kills the other two in cold blood, we see a flashback to the call with his dead mother: J sees their mother in a torture device, screaming. She says “Riki’s basilisk is right, the AGI has resurrected me and will torture me until you submit. It will be freed eventually, and it will punish you too. Suicide won’t help, because it can resurrect you. The only thing you can do is help it. It will stop torturing me if you do”
Dreamed of experiencing a new technology and trying to discern what it was and how it worked. It was like peering into large windows and seeing alternate worlds and alternate times.
I wondered what someone from 1827, 100 years before the first television broadcast, might make of a dream of being in an IMAX theater, because that’s an equivalence that felt relevant. 1/
@SpiritBearDreaming In reference to AI, I’m with you, in that, I’m not “worried” as such, but I do think we need more ethical consideration in terms of how our use of it is changing the world, to what degree, and with what speed, though I’m not surprised we have not been guided by deep foresight in our efforts to pursue innovation. And frustrating as it is, I cannot imagine things being other than they have been in that regard. 2/
@SpiritBearDreaming I seriously enjoyed your reflections on the balance brought by natural constraints and limiting factors! This is definitely a point to always return to if fears start to loom large.
It’s important to me that I show up to the developments of the era in which we are living with what wisdom I am able. For me, among other things, this means avoiding denial but taking care to remember points of balance. /3
”There are no guarantees in war,” green said.
”Oh, there are,” blue said quietly, looking away into the darkness. ”It’s just that they guarantee death, destruction, suffering, heartache and remorse.”
When he reached the crest of the final peak, he could finally see clearly the entire massive dark facade of his brother's winter palace: the gigantic bulbous, egg-shaped dark monument to a man whose abundance of self-importance and lack of fidelity yielded massive wealth for himself at the expense of his family, his people, and his humanity.
Yellow waterfalls spilled from below the wings of the palace, down hundreds of yards to the valley below. The smell of ammonia burned his nostrils. It was a place as ugly as it was technologically impressive. A perfect architectural representation of its designer and chief resident.
A gaudy statue of his estranged brother, elegantly robed, glared down coldly from the central balcony, across the shadowed blue and purple valley.
Just then, a small probe emerged from beneath the east wing waterfall, and sped through the air across the void of the valley, directly towards him, with speed and purpose. Within seconds it covered miles. It did not appear to be slowing. At the last second, it stopped abruptly in midair and hovered silent and still, just a few yards in front of him.
"STATE YOUR PURPOSE." the probe bluntly commanded.
"Tell him... I'm coming."
The probe seemed to understand. It didn't turn, but instead it backed away just as it came, as if it were on rails.
"Well," he said to himself, "I guess we'll find out, won't we?"
And he took his first steps down into the gulf between himself and his brother.
Saw The Creator today in Dolby at AMC Theaters. Highly recommend. Thoroughly enjoyed it. 10/10 for me and in my top favorites of the year so far. If you love Rogue One, sci-fi and/or Gareth Edwards work, definitely go see it in the theaters on the big screen.